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The effects of campus friendships and perceptions of racial climates on the sense of belonging among Arab and Muslim community college students

THE EFFECTS OF CAMPUS FRIENDSHIPS AND PERCEPTIONS OF RACIAL
CLIMATES ON THE SENSE OF BELONGING AMONG ARAB AND MUSLIM
COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS
by
Diane Shammas
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(EDUCATION)
May 2009
Copyright 200X Diane Shammas

Apart from the wide-scale media attention that Arabs and Muslims have received in the United States and abroad since 9/11, these two target populations have been largely unexamined at both the two-year and four-year college levels. This dissertation study represents a pioneering effort in investigating whether the post-9/11 backlash against Arabs and Muslims has penetrated community college campuses. The main objective of the study is to investigate the potential inter-relationships among the level of perceived discrimination, the degree of diversity of Arab and Muslim students' campus friendships, and their sense of belonging to the college. This study challenges the tenets of Allport's contact hypothesis and advances instead two conflict theories, integrated threat theory and social dominance theory that provide the theoretical framework for why perceived discrimination might promote ethnic and religious clustering among Arab and Muslim community college students.; The study employs a mixed methods design, a 92-item survey, and three focus groups. The survey sample consists of 753 Arab Christian, Arab Muslim, and non-Arab Muslim students from 15 commmunity colleges in Southern California and six community colleges in Southeast Michigan.; The results of the study are as follows: (a) there is a positive relationship between Arab and Muslim students' campus friendships and the sense of belonging to the college; (b) there were no significant correlations between the level of perceived discrimination and the percentage of campus friends who were of the same ancestry and same religion, same ancestry and different religion, same religion and different ancestry, and different religion and different ancestry; (c) there was no relationship between strength of ethnic identity and the percentage of campus friends from the four ethnic/faith friendship groups; and, (d) there were no interactions between the strength of ethnic identity and the level of perceived discrimination on the dependent variables, sense of belonging and the percentage of campus friends from the four ethnic/faith friendship groups. Student focus groups furnished testimony on their experiences with discrimination on campus as well as provided insight into Arab and Muslim students' reluctance to report discrimination in surveys. The implications of the study are for community college researchers to tailor their measures of campus climate to fit specifically the institutional type and the student demographic profile. Campus climate measures must include items that not only draw out more subtle forms of discrimination, but also inquire into a wide scope and frequency of discriminatory behaviors.

THE EFFECTS OF CAMPUS FRIENDSHIPS AND PERCEPTIONS OF RACIAL
CLIMATES ON THE SENSE OF BELONGING AMONG ARAB AND MUSLIM
COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS
by
Diane Shammas
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(EDUCATION)
May 2009
Copyright 200X Diane Shammas